1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a multi-point communication system for establishing communication by connecting communication terminals at multiple locations, and more particularly to a method and system for relaying the presence of all participants during a video conference to a remote receiving end.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to the advanced development of image compression coding techniques and digital communication technologies, the demand for video conferencing has grown exponentially. Various terminals have been proposed for use in video conferencing. For example, a pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) camera mounted on top of a TV monitor is most commonly used in a conventional video conferencing setting. The operator of the PTZ controls the pan, tilt, and zoom settings of the camera to capture a close-up view of the speaker, so that remote participants at the receiving end can view the speaker""s face. However, other participants who are silently present during video conferencing might never be captured in the conventional video conferencing systems. Thus, a remote person viewing the video conference may never know of their presence. However, it is often desirable to perceive the presence of other participants as they listen and interact with the speaker.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide a view of other participants in video conferencing, such that the presence of all people in the video conference can be relayed to participants at the remote receiving end.
The present invention is directed to a system and method for providing the presence of all participants in video conferencing to other video conference terminals at remote receiving ends.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a method for tracking a plurality of participants in a video conference includes the steps of: monitoring a particular video conference room to track all participants based on video locator outputs; generating an audio locator output to determine a person who is speaking; adjusting the setting of a camera to focus on a person who is speaking based on whether the audio locator and video locator outputs are within a specified range of one another; and, if the speaking person is silent for a predetermined time period, adjusting the camera setting to sequentially display other silent participants. If the speaking person continues to speak more than a predefined time period, the camera setting is adjusted to sequentially display other participants who are not speaking. The method further includes the steps of detecting and displaying a new person entering or one of the participants exiting in the video conference room.
According to another aspect of the present invention, an apparatus for tracking a plurality of participants in a video conference includes a camera, and a processor coupled to the camera and operative (i) to process an audio locator output and a video locator output indicative of the location of each participant; (ii) adjust the setting of a camera to focus on one of the participants who is speaking; (iii) detect whether the speaker is silent for a threshold time period; and, (iv) adjust the camera setting to sequentially display other participants who are not speaking after a detected period of silence exceeds the threshold time period. The processor is further operative to zoom out the camera by a predetermined amount after a detected period of silence exceeds the threshold time period.
The foregoing and other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following, more detailed description of preferred embodiments as illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which reference characters refer to the same parts throughout the various views. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, the emphasis instead is placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention.